On 23 January 2020, the Government announced that the new right to leave will mean that an employee who loses a child under the age of 18, or suffers a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, will be entitled to two weeks’ statutory leave to be taken in one block or as two separate blocks of a week.
The leave will be paid for employees who have at least 26 weeks’ service and who meet minimum earnings criteria. Statutory parental bereavement pay will be paid at the same rate as statutory paternity pay, i.e. £151.20 per week (from April 2020) or 90% of weekly earnings if lower.
